A major national survey shows most U.S. teens continue to avoid alcohol, nicotine and other drugs at historically high rates, with no rebound since the pandemic. Researchers say the overall picture is encouraging but warn that small increases in heroin and cocaine use need close attention.
For the fifth year in a row, most U.S. teenagers are steering clear of alcohol, nicotine and other drugs, holding steady at the historically low levels first seen during the COVID-19 pandemic.
New data from the long-running Monitoring the Future study, based at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research (ISR), show that teen substance use has not bounced back to pre-pandemic levels, despite the return of in-person school, sports and social life.
The latest results defy early predictions about a post-pandemic surge in teen drug use, according to Richard Miech, an ISR research professor and team lead of the study
“One of the main findings from the survey this year is that teen use of the most common drugs has not rebounded after the large decline during the pandemic,” he said in a news release. “Many expected teen drug use levels to return to pre-pandemic levels once the social distancing policies were lifted, but this has not happened.”
Monitoring the Future is an annual, nationally representative survey of eighth, 10th and 12th graders that has tracked U.S. teen drug use and attitudes for 51 years. Supported by the National Institutes of Health, it asks students about their use of substances over the past 30 days, past year and over their lifetimes, as well as how harmful they think drugs are, how much they disapprove of use and how easy they believe it is to get different substances.
For the 2025 report, researchers collected 23,726 web-based surveys from students at 270 public and private schools across the country between February and June. The data were statistically weighted to reflect national trends.
The topline message: most teens are not using drugs.
Abstaining from marijuana, alcohol and nicotine in the past 30 days remained high across all grades. According to the survey, 91% of eighth graders, 82% of 10th graders and 66% of 12th graders reported not using any of those substances in the previous month.
Alcohol use over the past year held steady, with 11% of eighth graders, 24% of 10th graders and 41% of 12th graders saying they had consumed alcohol in the last 12 months.
Cannabis use also remained stable. In the past year, 8% of eighth graders, 16% of 10th graders and 26% of 12th graders reported using cannabis. The survey also picked up use of cannabis products made from hemp, which can include intoxicating products such as delta-8-tetrahydrocannabinol. In the past 12 months, 2% of eighth graders, 6% of 10th graders and 9% of 12th graders reported using these hemp-based cannabis products.
Nicotine vaping, which has been a major concern for schools and parents in recent years, did not increase. Over the past year, 9% of eighth graders, 14% of 10th graders and 20% of 12th graders reported vaping nicotine.
Use of nicotine pouches, small packets placed between the gum and lip that deliver nicotine without smoke or vapor, also stayed low and stable. In the past 12 months, 1% of eighth graders, 3% of 10th graders and 7% of 12th graders reported using nicotine pouches.
While most of the news is positive, the survey did flag a few areas that researchers say deserve careful monitoring.
Daily use of energy drinks or energy shots is at or near record highs in all three grades. In the past 30 days, 18% of eighth graders, 20% of 10th graders and 23% of 12th graders reported consuming energy drinks or shots at least once per day. The increase among 10th graders, from 17% in 2024 to 20% in 2025, was statistically significant.
Heroin and cocaine use remain rare among teens, but both showed small increases compared with last year.
Heroin use in the past 12 months was reported by 0.5% of eighth graders, up from 0.2% in 2024; 0.5% of 10th graders, up from 0.1%; and 0.9% of 12th graders, up from 0.2%.
Cocaine use over the past year stayed low and stable among 10th graders at 0.7%, but rose among the other grades. Use increased from 0.2% to 0.6% among eighth graders and from 0.9% to 1.4% among 12th graders.
Those upticks should not be ignored, even though the overall levels are still far below what they were in past decades, noted Miech.
“The slight but significant increase we see in heroin and cocaine use warrants close monitoring. However, to put these current levels of use in context, they are leagues below what they were decades ago,” he added.
Public health experts say the findings highlight both progress and ongoing responsibility. Nationally, teen drug use has been a focus of prevention campaigns, school-based education and parental outreach for years. The pandemic unexpectedly accelerated declines in use, likely because teens had fewer opportunities to socialize in person and less access to substances while at home.
The new data suggest that many of those lower-use patterns have stuck, even as social life has reopened.
Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which supports the study, emphasized that the overall picture is encouraging, in part because “so many teens choose not to use drugs at all.” At the same time, she stressed that the work is far from over.
“It is critical to continue to monitor these trends closely to understand how we can continue to support teens in making healthy choices and target interventions where and when they are needed,” she said in the news release.
For families, educators and policymakers, the 2025 Monitoring the Future results offer a nuanced snapshot: most teens are making healthy choices about substance use, but small shifts in more dangerous drugs and heavy energy drink consumption call for attention.
Researchers will continue to track these patterns each year, looking for early warning signs of emerging problems and evidence of what is helping teens stay substance-free. The full 2025 survey results are available online from the University of Michigan.
Source: University of Michigan